Petition gains nearly 600 signatures to reinstate bus service

A petition calling for the reinstatement of a key bus service in the Village of Bridge has gained almost 600 signatures in just four days.

Councillor Mike Sole, who started the petition, has already gained almost 600 signatures calling to reinstate the service through the village.

He said: “We should be having more buses, not less.”

The bus service connecting the Village of Bridge to Canterbury and Aylesham will begin to bypass the village starting May 5th, making it harder for locals to commute.

“We were about 550 signatures, which is pretty good within about 3 days.

“It just seems like a completely ludicrous thing to do to not come into the village and keep going straight on the A2 when it’s done it for a long time.”

Cllr. Sole explained that Bridge had better bus services than most villages but now is on par with others.

“Surely that can rejig their timetables or do something else to accommodate the fact the journey may be a few minutes longer.”

Cllr Sole says Stagecoach told him that the change was made to combat increased journey time due to congestion in the city.

 

The 89 bus service, run by Stagecoach, will continue but will travel directly to its destination, not stopping at the village.

This will become more challenging for locals as the bus service provides significant accessibility to public transport.

Only one service that will be running to the village would be the bus service 17, dramatically reducing bus frequency.

It will also become difficult for residents to get to Aylesham as they will now need to change at Canterbury.

Villagers took to Facebook to complain about the situation.

One said: “This is absolutely mad!”

Another user said: “I was really shocked to read this. We need our buses.”

Where buses used to arrive every 30 minutes, they will soon take almost an hour operating only on one bus service.

Using buses help avoid paying the hefty fees asked by car parks in Canterbury, which have continuously increased.

Stagecoach have been approached for a comment.